Currently Watching: One Piece

October 8 2023

Welcome to the One Piece Appreciation Hour, Episode 1! Don't worry, there won't be any spoilers. I won't even add any progress bars. Just a quick introduction, and some details on how I got into it.

One Piece is a manga created by Eiichiro Oda in 1997, which has since been adapted as an anime, and as of this year, live action as well. Also, there's One Piece movies, video games, card games, and a bunch of other things. Basically, it's one of the most popular franchises out there, and if you can imagine some sort of merch for it, it likely exists already.

There are a variety of themes explored in the series, and it tackles a bunch of serious issues by keeping things light on the surface, and funny throughout, kind of like the Discworld series! It is definitely one of the best examples of absurdist fiction. I am currently 'somewhere' (to avoid spoilers) in the anime. I have not read the manga, or watched the live action yet.

One thing that anyone interested in One Piece will almost immediately discover is that it's an extremely long story. The manga has more than a thousand chapters, the anime, more than a thousand episodes, and neither are finished! This is intimidating, I know. The first time I started the show, some years ago, I quit too soon. Maybe even more than once, I don't really remember.

About a year ago, I gave it another try. This time, I was looking for a good escape for a long time. It was the usual commitment aversion flipped on its head, and (as I realized) for that situation, One Piece is perfect! I was looking for something that there could always be another episode to come back to, and that's why, I feel, I was able to stick to it this time.

If you're still worried about the length of the series, this might help. The story is divided into many sagas, and they all have a few arcs within each of them. This way it's easy to watch a few episodes, take however long of a break you want to, and come back later. The world is still there, waiting for you. This is another great thing about One Piece: It never feels like homework!

That's all for the 'first episode' of One Piece appreciation! I might add more in the future.

Here are some relevant links. All are for informational purposes only.

• Link to the Wikipedia entry for the One Piece manga
• Link to the Wikipedia entry for the One Piece anime
• Link to the Wikipedia entry for Eiichiro Oda